Tsuru-zaiku (vine crafting) class -Asahi Matatabi Club-

つる細工講座 ＜朝日マタタビクラブ＞

The size of Tadami-machi (town) is 747.53 km² ※and consists of 90% mountain forest.
Tadami-machi is divided into three regions, called Tadami, Asahi and Meiwa and each has their own distinctive community style and culture.

Each region in Tadami-machi has a community center and they offer various traditional craft classes such as vine crafting, Shimenawa making, indigo dyeing and Soba noodle making. The schedule of these classes can change depending on the year and the different regions,

I visited the Tsuru-zaiku (vine crafting) class in the Asahi community center.

※as much as 1.2 times of tokyo’s 23 wards.

Shimenawa：Decoration made of rice ears and hemp placed at the entrance or gates of a house during the New Year to ward off evil.

The group gets together and makes their own favourite crafts during the scheduled time & day with the veterans passing their technique onto others, rather than just one instructor teaching a class.

Tsuru-zaiku has been done in other areas in Tadami-machi as well and is a winter job (traditional craft products) where people can’t go out for work because of the snow.

On the same day, there is another class, making hand made brooms. This would be my next illustration topic.

Some illustration information is available in About the Art（English）

Tadami, Fukushima pref.
Located in a heavy snowfall region in the south-west of Fukushima prefecture on the border with Niigata prefecture. Declared「Shizen shuto・Tadami（Capital of Nature・Tadami）in 2007.
Its natural environment and resources together with the life and culture of its residents were judged particularly valuable among the modern world environment,
In 2014 it was designated as a biosphere reserve under the Man and the Biosphere Program. UNESCO’s Japan committee calls them Eco Parks.